


First Impressions

by crain11 (orphan_account)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: First Meetings, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 05:04:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10983936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/crain11
Summary: Kenma and Oikawa couldn't look any more different, but that doesn't mean they have nothing in common.ORThese two think they're so good at reading people, but then they meet each other.





	First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't know i shipped this pairing, but apparently i really do 
> 
> i wrote this quickly bc i just wanted to explore their dynamic and figure out how/if a relationship with them could work. might start work on a longer fic where there's an actual relationship, soon.
> 
> probably pretty OOC, especially oikawa, oi

Kozume Kenma didn’t have an opinion on Oikawa Tooru. It didn’t make sense that he would- they didn’t go to school near each other, Aoba Jousai’s failure to make it to Nationals meant their teams never played together and from what he heard of him, he and Oikawa were as different as day and night. 

Oikawa was the kind of setter that no one ever doubted. He stole the spotlight with his strength and skill and his overly confident and arrogant personality. From what Shoyuou said about him, he was a perfect example of someone born to be a setter and maybe Kenma could have been a bit jealous, but it’s not like he was ever really dedicated to volleyball anyway. Kenma was used to other setters being different from him. 

One thing Kenma knew was that Oikawa probably wasn’t the type of person he wanted to run into. Shouyou said Oikawa was the one to teach Kageyama about volleyball in middle school and if he was half as intimidating as Kageyama was, he’d rather avoid him. Kenma was tired of meeting intimidating people.

So, of course, Kenma did meet him. 

It was on a Saturday in spring and the weather was kind of nice- neither too hot or too cold. Kenma had been convinced to take a train from Tokyo to stay at Shouyou’s house for the weekend and so the two of them were both sitting on the curb outside of the Karasuno coach’s convenience store. Shouyou had been on his third pork bun and Kenma was focusing on defeating a monster in his newest PSP game, when a voice spoke from in front of them.

“Long time no see, Chibi-chan. So you have friends other than Tobio-chan, after all?” 

Kenma looked up to see a man with wavy brown hair and a teasing grin that almost reminded him of Kuroo- almost, but not quite. It felt different, somehow. Kenma studied him for a moment, and he noticed the pretty brunette girl he had his arm around, too. Shouyou must have said something in reply and he heard the name “Oikawa” but he mostly missed out on what the two were saying. 

Oikawa was different than he expected, and Kenma felt almost- disappointed? When Kenma returned to his game a moment later, he was sure he heard Oikawa attempt to get his attention and Shouyou defended him, but Kenma was too focused on his game, as he felt a sudden determination to finally win the level, with no distractions. When he looked up again, Oikawa and the girl were gone. 

“Sorry about him,” Shouyou said from beside him, “I told you Oikawa can be kind of a jerk, sometimes.”

Kenma nodded and muttered, “It didn’t bother me,” before looking at the screen of his PSP again. Whatever Oikawa said hadn’t bothered him anyway- he wasn’t listening. What had bothered him was Oikawa, himself. 

Kenma didn’t consider himself a “people expert,” or anything like that. In fact, it was draining to be around almost everyone and he tended to isolate himself away from people. But Kenma could never shake his concern about what people thought of him, so he’d learned from a young age to read people. It wasn’t always accurate, but he could usually get a pretty decent read on the people he met. 

When he heard about the Great King, he might have had his expectations set, but when he met him, what he saw was- annoying. He didn’t find the over-confidence and complete certainty in himself that he expected from Oikawa.

Sure, Oikawa had acted confident and showy (Kenma could hear that from his voice alone), but there was an air of dishonesty about it. Everything seemed for show and maybe the Great King wasn’t quite as confident and secure in himself as he thought. Kenma met a lot of people (mostly against his will because of volleyball and Kuroo) and he never really judged them for what he saw in them because if you judge someone else, then that’s sort of like giving them permission to judge you back- but Kenma couldn’t help but feel a little- he wasn’t sure. It was probably disappointment, though. Whatever it was, Kenma hoped he wouldn’t see him again. 

During another weekend visit, in late June, Kenma's luck ran out, and he met Oikawa again. 

While Shouyou had been dragged off to some sort of emergency volleyball club meeting, Kenma assured him that he would be fine on his own. He found a bench on a quiet street that was shaded from the hot sun and pulled out his PSP. Not five minutes later, someone sat next to him. Kenma ignored them, but then came a familiar voice.

“You’re Chibi-chan’s friend, right?” His voice was tinged with the dramatic false-confidence that Kenma remembered. The feelings of annoyance that Kenma felt with him before, returned, but he didn’t want to seem too rude, so he nodded.

“You don’t seem very alike. You’re at least a lot less talkative than him,” Oikawa continued and Kenma didn’t reply. 

“Why do I get the feeling you don’t like me, Neko-chan?” Oikawa asked and Kenma glanced up from his screen for a second. Oikawa was smiling after successfully prodding Kenma to look at him, so Kenma looked back down at his screen.

“Don’t call me that.” Kenma’s voice was as disinterested as usual, and he hoped Oikawa would take that as a sign to leave him alone. 

“Ah, and he speaks,” Oikawa said, “Maybe if I knew your real name, I would use that instead.” Based on what Shouyou told him, Kenma doubted he would.

“Are you bored?” Kenma asked, hoping to find a way out of this conversation. 

“I’m talking to a cute boy, how could I be bored?” Oikawa replied, voice as smooth as ever.

“Because it doesn’t make sense for you to talk to me. You don’t know me, and you probably have a lot of other friends to talk to, maybe even your girlfriend from last time.”

“She broke up with me,” Oikawa sighed and Kenma looked up again. Oikawa had said that in a normal voice, no dramatics or showiness to it. 

“Sorry,” Kenma said, and he worried that Oikawa’s arrogant persona would make a comeback when a smile reached his lips again, but this time it was a slight smile and it felt genuine. 

“It’s Kozume…” Kenma stated, “Kozume Kenma.”

“Oikawa Tooru,” Oikawa returned.

“I know.”

“But I don’t think you were paying much attention last time,” Oikawa said, “I’ve actually been wondering about that. Most people take time to figure out if they dislike a person, but you figured it out in a second. For curiosity’s sake, can I know why? I’m usually pretty good at figuring people out, but you’re a little harder to see through.”

Kenma looked at him and he was surprised to see that he seemed honest and maybe even a little hurt. He didn’t quite understand why someone as popular as Oikawa would ever care about, let alone remember, the opinion of someone as irrelevant as himself. Kenma was considering ignoring the question, altogether, or giving a fake answer, when Oikawa spoke again. 

“If you tell me, I promise I’ll leave,” and there was a bit of his usual confidence, covering up the insecurities that laid beneath his words, so Kenma sighed. He would be honest because Oikawa probably wouldn’t care that much about his answer, anyway. 

“It’s nothing, you just try to hard. I thought you’d be like all the other confident volleyball players I know, but you don’t seem very confident at all. You put on some sort of show and a fake smile, just to hide how insecure you are.” Kenma looked up from his screen and over to Oikawa, “Everything just feels kind of fake.”

Oikawa looked shocked and Kenma was about to turn back to his screen, uncomfortable with the eyes staring at him, when Oikawa leaned back and loosely crossed his arms. He didn’t seem very upset, but Kenma was still on alert. “And you aren’t fake?”

Kenma’s eyes widened a bit, though he didn’t completely understand what Oikawa was implying 

“You pretend to be a nobody and fit in with everyone, so you’re never noticed. You act disinterested with everything, so no one makes fun of your interests, and you judge people after a second of meeting them.” Kenma just stares. “Not that I’m not the same, though. I did judge those things about you pretty quickly, but I wasn’t about to hold it against you.”

When Kenma didn’t say anything, Oikawa continued, “My conclusion is the reason you hate me is because we’re the same and it really sucks to see the thing you hate most about yourself reflected on someone else. I’ve never really met too many people who can see through me. When it felt like you did and hated what you saw, it bugged me.”

“I don’t hate you,” Kenma finally spoke up, “I might have judged wrong, maybe. I don’t know. It happens.”

Oikawa seemed genuinely upset at the idea of Kenma hating him, and Kenma wasn’t sure what to do. 

Maybe what Oikawa said made sense. Sometimes Kenma did feel like he had to pretend to be someone else, just so he could get through different situations. Had he really disliked Oikawa for his own faults? 

Acting boring and disinterested was a coping mechanism, and he hated that he even needed it, but he tended to get anxious a lot. With certain people, however, he could just be himself. With Oikawa now, he didn’t feel too anxious. 

Oikawa seemed to see through Kenma as well as he could see through him and this was new, but also kind of- refreshing. There was no point in keeping up a persona of disinterest, with him. 

“Then maybe you can make it up to me, Neko-chan,” Kenma frowned at the nickname, “There’s a cafe down the road. Care to tell me more about my false-confidence?” Oikawa teased. 

After a moment, Kenma gave a slight nod and stood up from the bench. Oikawa seemed to scan him up and down, before walking down the sidewalk and gesturing for Kenma to follow. 

“You know, I wasn’t being fake about one thing, though, Ken-chan,” Oikawa’s voice dropped a bit and in a more modest voice he finished, “It’s true that you are very cute.”

Kenma stopped a bit and stared at Oikawa’s back, before he smiled to himself and kept walking. Oikawa would figure it out sooner or later, if he hadn’t already, so Kenma shrugged and figured he might as well just say it. 

“You too,” Kenma muttered and he couldn’t see Oikawa’s face from in front of him, but he seemed to straighten up a bit and he started to hum.


End file.
